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Walker pursues triple crown
Walker is currently leading the NL in batting average (.382), trails Houston's Jeff Bagwell (75) by two for the RBI lead and is fourth in home runs with 24. Walker, who has a .341 career-average as a Rockie, should have no problem winning another batting title and will likely see better pitches than Bagwell as the Rockies fall further out of contention for anything other than the NL West cellar. The one major hurdle in Walker's pursuit of baseball history, the last player to win the NL triple crown was the St. Louis Cardinals Joe Medwick in 1937, is Sammy Sosa.
The Chicago Cubs slugger, who leads the majors with 32 home runs, is on the same pace as a year ago when he slammed 66. And the way Sammy has been dialing long-distance lately, nine home runs in the last 13 days, Walker will have to get on some kind of tear to catch him. Walker's home run clip of one for every 10.6 at-bats is third-best in the NL, behind Mark McGwire (10.2) and Sosa (9.6). Assuming Sosa hits 60 homers, Walker would have to go deep at a rate of once every 8.2 at-bats to tie him. However it is possible for the majors' best rightfielder, who plays in the majors' best hitting ballpark - Coors Field where Walker is averaging a home run every 7.5 at-bats. Walker has slammed five four-baggers in his last 25 at-bats and has four homers already in July.
With just three months remaining on the season, Walker would have to average 12 home runs per month. The most homers Walker has ever hit in a single month were 11 in April, 1997. Walker has never hit 50 taters in any of his 10 full seasons in the majors - he hit 49 in 1997.
Walker is on pace for a career year, despite missing 12 games with a badly bruised rib, with projected numbers (over 145 games) of .382, 52 homers and 157 RBIs. Medwick claimed the last NL triple crown with a .374, 31HR 154RBI season.
Walker, from Maple Ridge, B.C., has already assured himself of a spot in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, but with the NL's first triple crown in 62 years would virtually guarantee himself a spot alongside Ferguson Jenkins in the Hall in Cooperstown.
GRIFFEY'S NOT HAPPY
The Seattle Mariners must do some quick damage control, if they want to ensure that all-star centerfielder Ken Griffey Jr. remains in an M's jersey after his contract expires next season. Griffey who has grumbled from time-to-time over his current deal, which at US$8.5 million has him as the fifteenth-highest paid player in baseball, is upset that the Mariners' owners have used him in an effort to win financial help for its expenditures on Safeco Field.
According to the Seattle Times Mariners' CEO John Ellis was quoted, in comments to a member of the Public Facilities District board, as saying the stadium costs could affect the ability to pay Griffey and Alex Rodriguez in contract extensions.
"They should (have) thought of that . . . years ago," Griffey told The Times said on the eve of being named to his 11th All-Star team.
Griffey said he did not appreciate being placed in the middle of the club's problems with cost overruns. The final pricetag for the new park is expected to be in the neighbourhood of US$520 million - more than $100 million more than the Mariners ownership had promised the municipality it would be.
"Every time something happens, it's always the players," Griffey said angrily. "Jay (Buhner) has deferred money to help the team. I've deferred money. Every time it doesn't go the club's way, guess whose name gets dropped in it - mine."
If the Mariners continue to disrespect Griffey they may well lose him, especially if his father, Ken Griffey Sr., gets a head coaching job in the next year.
EXPOS SOPHOMORE FULL OF HIMSELF
The last time I checked Montreal Expos sophomore first-baseman Brad Fullmer wasn't leading the league in any category, except bonehead plays. So where does the slumping slugger get off refusing a demotion to the minors in addition to the advice of respected team orthopedic surgeon Larry Coughlin?
Fullmer, who is having a terrible season after a stellar rookie campaign in which he had 44 doubles, refused his second demotion to the Expos' Triple-A Ottawa franchise after the team re-activated centerfielder Rondell White this week.
Instead of following orders with the humility of a player with just 191 major-league games under his belt, the big-headed Fullmer remained in Montreal and asked for an MRI to be performed on his left knee. While it was the same knee that allowed him to make the journey to Montreal following his first demotion to Ottawa, suddenly Fullmer's injured pride found an excuse for his poor play in a wonky knee. Fullmer's request was granted and after the examination Coughlin pronounced him fit to play.
Yet Fullmer's antics didn't stop at the doctor's door, as he has refused to report to Ottawa until the results of a second opinion, in the form of an MRI by noted orthopedic surgeon Frank Jobe in Los Angeles, are examined.
According to The Montreal Gazette Expos GM Jim Beattie is very upset with Fullmer, who demanded a trade after his first demotion to Ottawa, and has compared the situation with Fullmer to that of the New York Mets Bobby Bonilla, who flat-out refused to come into a game and pinch-hit several weeks ago, after Bobby Valentine benched him.
Beattie, who is currently vacationing with his family in Vermont, NH, has said he will deal with the situation upon his return.
BOGGED DOWN
While his 3,000th hit will put Tampa Bay Devil Rays Wade Boggs in Cooperstown, nothing will ever put him in Boston Red Sox fans' good books. Boggs has strongly hinted this season will likely be his last, but that wasn't enough to stop Boston fans from booing him mercilessly in what could be his final game at Fenway Park last Wednesday.
In the same park in which Boggs won five American League batting titles, he slammed his final home run to give the Rays an improbable 11-10 extra-inning victory. For Boggs it was the final salvo in a war that began with his acrimonious departure from the Red Sox in 1992, after 11 glorious years.
However despite his accomplishments against the Green Monster, Boston fans seem to have short memories when it comes to their stars leaving them. Unlike Roger Clemens and Mo Vaughn, Boggs has continued to draw a venomous response from Beantown crowds. Maybe it was because Boggs left them for the hated Yankees, but Babe Ruth did the same and wasn't nearly as hated.
Boggs told the Tampa Tribune it was never his intention to leave Boston, but that he was forced out by then-GM Lou Gorman.
"Lou Gorman [ex-Sox general manager] came out and told everybody he had offered me more money, but that I wanted to leave. That's just not true. I never wanted to leave here. I didn't have a choice. But the fans believed Lou."
Before Wednesday's game there was no mention in the Boston newspapers about the possibility of this being Boggs' final game here and fans didn't seem to notice - they booed him as lustily as ever. A sad ending for what could have been an affair to remember.
MR. OCTOBER JOINS A'S GROUP
A group trying to buy the Oakland Athletics has traded their Hall of Fame second baseman for one of the best big-game performers of all-time.
Reggie Jackson, who helped the Oakland Athletics win three World Series championships, has joined a local group - headed by former A's marketing director Andy Dolich - trying to buy the team just a few days after Joe Morgan announced he was pulling out.
Jackson, known as "Mr. October" for his stirring World Series performances, played for the A's for nine years and was the AL MVP in 1973.
"Baseball has been and will always be a part of me," Jackson told The Associated Press last week. "Partnering with this group at this time represents a unique opportunity for me to use both my business and baseball skills. I am committed to the group's philosophy of local ownership."
Jackson currently is director of new business alliances for Viking Components, which makes computer memory. He is also a principal of Ulico Insurance Group of Washington, D.C., and from 1993 until last year served as a special adviser to the New York Yankees.
Morgan said he dropped out because he didn't want to give up his broadcast positions with ESPN and NBC, and was unable to work out an acceptable deal with the group.
Dolich's group has offered $122.4 million to owners Steve Schott and Ken Hofmann. The price was worked out in a settlement with the city of Oakland and Alameda County. The sale must close by Sept. 21 or Schott and Hofmann retain ownership. The sale is not likely to be voted on by baseball owners when they meet Sept. 15-16 in Cooperstown.
BEST LINE OF THE NIGHT
Seattle Mariners starter John Halama scattered six hits in his first career shutout and complete game as Seattle defeated the Texas Rangers 6-0.
ON THIS DATE
In 1935 Tony Cuccinello of the Dodgers and his brother Al of the Giants each hit home runs in the same game to mark the first time in major league history that brothers on opposing teams connected for homers. Brooklyn beat New York 14-4.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"The bottom line is the guys are not in shape. I understand it's hot, but you have to be able to go through the whole game. They're not prepared. It's a shame."
-- New York Yankees catcher Jorge Posada on umpire Greg Kosc, who left New York's 7-3 loss to Baltimore in the seventh inning because of heat exhaustion.
Here's a little stats pack we'll be keeping as the season goes along.
Countdown to new Expos' single-season attendance record:
1,934,810 - (386,155)
Countdown to 3000 hits:
Tony Gwynn, SD - 18 (2,982)
Wade Boggs, TB - 28 (2,972)
Cal Ripken Jr., BAL - 58 (2,942)
Countdown to 71 home runs:
Sammy Sosa, CHI - 39HR
Jose Canseco, TB - 41HR
Ken Griffey Jr., SEA - 44HR
Mark McGwire, STL - 45HR
Jeff Bagwell, HOU - 45HR
Larry Walker, COL - 47HR
Juan Gonzalez, TEX - 48HR
Shawn Green, TOR - 48HR
Jeromy Burnitz, MIL - 48HR
Jay Bell, ARI - 49HR
Manny Ramirez, CLE - 49HR
Matt Williams, ARI - 50HR
Dean Palmer, DET - 50HR
Rafael Palmeiro, TEX - 51HR
Fred Mcgriff, TB - 52HR
Raul Mondesi, LA - 52HR
B.J. Surhoff, BAL - 52HR
John Jaha, OAK - 53HR
Vinny Castilla, COL - 53HR
Scott Rolen, PHI - 53HR
Mike Lieberthal, PHI - 53HR
Magglio Ordonez, CWS - 53HR
Carlos Delgado, TOR - 53HR
Dave Nilsson, MIL - 53HR
Countdown to the wild card:
Montreal Expos - 30W 47L (14.5 gm back of the Houston Astros for NL wild card)
Toronto Blue Jays - 42W 42L (6.5 gm back of Boston Red Sox for AL wild card)